Okay, for the record I was singing that to the Beatles “Wednesday Morning”. Since the only way to get back into the swing of things is, well, to actually get swinging, I was up at 4:30 and doing my 30 minute walk/run.
Every place I have lived has a month or two of weather that encourages a sedentary lifestyle. In Arizona it is July and early August. At 5AM today it is over 85 degrees and the humidity is 30%. 30% humidity was nothing when I lived by the ocean but it is extremely high after living a decade in the desert. I will admit when I opened my eyes to the warm sweaty dawn, I actually reset my alarm clock and closed my eyes. I absolutely did not want to do my stretches or take the dog for a run. I wanted to lay like the steamed vegetable I was.
Then my mantras automatically started running like audio news loops in my head:
“There are two kinds of people, those who make their dreams come true and those who make excuses”
“Never trade what you want most for what you want right now.”
What I want most is to complete this Sprint Tri in October. So I got out of bed, pulled on my Rainbow CareBear shirt and saggy shorts, grabbed the top pair of socks from the door and laced on my running shoes. Cozi’s tail started wagging the second I reached for the socks.Next was getting the leash on my ecstatic Golden and we were out the door.
I pulled my Smart Phone out of my pocket and brought up my sports program and hit “start” but my Endomondo program wasn’t registering any movement at all. Temptation was to fiddle away part of my half hour trying to make it work, instead I just stuck the phone in my pocket to keep track of time and took off walking/running. It ends up that somehow I had switched the activity to sailing so that might be why the android program was not tracking speed or distance, but at home I have an actual route so I can measure my progress against my previous run.
It is funny for me to talk to other Triathlon participants when I meet them on-line or in person because they always tell me their strongest and weakest portion of the event and ask mine. I smile and say “I am pretty equal in all the sections although least experienced on the bike.” I tell you this about my running because it is equally as accomplished as my swimming where I am gradually increasing accumulated lengths(25 meters) to the required sprint length of 200 meters but still unable to do a full 50 meters (lap) without a minute break between laps. Biking is improving on a stationary bike but still haven’t actually a real one, and my running is of commensurate ability, I pretty much suck.LOL
However, when I started at the beginning of June, I could not make a full length in the pool with a kickboard without a break, walking 5k required two rests and my thirty minutes on the stationary bike yielded (at flat resistance 2) 3.7 miles, and Tuesday I did 6 miles of interval resistance, walk 5k (run small blips), and swim (in pieces) 250 meters with face down and (still poor form) freestyle.
It is about progress and showing up even on the days when I want to believe the voice in my head that says this is all nonsense, and I am pushing myself too hard, and I can’t do it anyway, and it’s too hot, and I can always start again tomorrow. The problem is that their are never any shortages of excuses, but todays and nows are numbered. So my little blog is done today and I drank my soy fruit smoothie. Time to pack my stuff up and head off to the pool for swim time with Phil.
Sadly today my DIL has a really early court hearing with a client and so won’t be joining us. Have really missed her these last two weeks and look forward to swimming with her again soon. Hopefully be seeing on or the other of my sons back in the practice pool with us this coming week as well.
Namaste my friends, and whatever you are doing today, give it your best, which is always a little more than we think we have to give.